Safety goggle



Sept. 19, 1961 w. F. STERNE ETAL 3,000,011

SAFETY GOGGLE Filed July 26, 1957 HF '1 2 25 115 1 2 4 2 11 Wllazglc i gi i zjlia, 0 r1 ATTORNEYS.

United States Patent 3,000,011 SAFETY GOGGLE Willard F. Sterne and Roy A. Bright, Buffalo, N.Y., as-

signors to Virginia I. Du Bois, Snyder, Lauriene T. Holzworth, Rita C. Sterne, and Eileen Silbert, Buffalo, and Florence E. Taylor, Kenmore, N.Y.

Filed July 26, 1957, Ser. No. 674,386 2 Claims. (Cl. 2-14) This invention relates to goggles of the type designed to protect the eyes of the wearer against dust, dirt and other foreign matter, such goggles being used particularly by industrial workers of various kinds such as in welding, grinding and similar occupations where flying particles present an eye-safety hazard.

A fairly common type of safety goggle of this general class comprises a continuous generally oblong lens member and a frame or support member which fits about the periphery of the lens member and is secured thereto or interlocked therewith. The frame or support member extends rearwardly from the lens member, and its rear edge is contoured to fit against the face of the wearer, particularly against the forehead, the cheekbone and the nose portions of the face. Thus the lens member is supported in a position substantially forwardly of the eyes of the wearer and the frame is generally of sufiicient extent to be worn over ordinary eye glasses without interference.

It is common practice in goggles of this general type to provide multiple perforations in the frame portion of the goggles for ventilation of the interior thereof. In prior art goggles a great number of very small perforations are generally employed for such ventilation, their arrangement being virtually screen-like, in order to retard, to some extent, the admission of particles therethrough. This arrangement provides only a limited passage of ventilating air and only partially retards entry of foreign matter. Also since the frame members of these goggles are usually of molded plastic material, the numerous fine perforations greatly complicate the manufacture of the molds and the molding operation.

The present invention provides a goggle frame ventilating arrangement whereby the ventilation may be accomplished with relatively few openings, the individual openings being of considerable area. This is accomplished, according to the present invention and speaking generally, by providing readily attachable shield members over the ventilating openings in such manner as to bar the passage of solid or liquid matter without substantially interfering with the free passage of ventilating air. In prior art ventilating perforating arrangements there has been substantially no impedance to the admission of harmful or noxious liquids such as acid solutions and the like. In the arrangement of the present invention special means are provided to prevent entry of liquids to the interior of the goggles while permitting ample and adequate ventilating air flow.

Various modifications and mechanical advantages may be made in the goggles illustrated and described herein without departing from the principles of the present invention. It is to be understood that the embodiment thus illustrated and described in detail is set forth by way of example and that the principles of the invention are not limited thereto or otherwise than as defined in the appended claims.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a general front elevational view of an assembled goggle constructed according to one form of the present invention, with portions thereof broken away for added illustration;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the goggle of FIG. 1;

3,000,011 Patented Sept. 19., 1961 ice FIG. 3 is a fragmentary top plan view of the portion of the goggle indicated by the line HIIII of FIG. 1, a portion thereof being broken away for further illustration;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary view taken as indicated by the line IV-IV of FIG. 1, likewise with a portion thereof broken away for further illustration; and

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary. cross-sectional view on the line V--V of FIG. 4.

The ventilating construction and principles of the present invention are applicable to various forms of goggles of the general type contemplated herein. By way of example, the form of goggle shown in the drawing is that which is illustrated and described in greater detail in our copending patent application, Serial No. 674,456 filed July 26, 1957, now Patent No. 2,914,770, granted December 1, 1959, wherein a bout lens member is provided with a two-piece frame assembly which includes a separate framing member for the nose portion of the goggles. The principles are, however, equally applicable to known types of goggles wherein the frame member comprises a continuous endless loop engaged about a lens member and are also equally applicable to goggles of the type shown in Patent No. 2,422,534 wherein the frame member extends about the lens member from one side of the nose space to the other, without bridging such nose space.

Like characters of reference denote like parts in the several figures of the drawing and, referring more particularly to FIG. 1, a lens member 10 of transparent, relatively stiff, plastic or other material is horizontally oblong to cover both of the eyes'of the wearer and is notched at its lower central portion to accommodate the wearers nose, all as shown in FIG. 1 and as is generally known in the art. A main frame member 11 extends across the top and sides of the lens member 10 and terminates generally at the lower part of the lens member at opposite sides of the nose notch thereof.

In the goggles illustrated herein by way of example the main frame member 11 is supplemented by a nose portion frame member 12. The manner in which these frame members are assembled with lens member 10 and with each other is set forth in detail in the aforesaid contemporaneous patent application and need not be further elaborated herein. For present purposes the frame members may be regarded as one.

In the form of the invention set forth herein by way of example two upper ventilating portions are provided, these being designated generally by the numeral 14, and two lower ventilating portions are designated generally by the numeral 15. As appears from FIG. 2, and as is well known in the art the rear edge of frame member 11 is contoured as at 16 to fit against the face of the wearer and the general depth of the frame member 11 from the lens member 10 rearwardly is such as to accommodate the ventilating portions 14 and 15, although the irregular depth of the frame member '11 dictates the generally triangular shape of the ventilating portions, as illustrated in the drawings and as will appear from the ensuing description.

Reference will first be had to the upper ventilating portions 14, the left-hand one of which, as viewed in FIG. 1, is illustrated in further detail in FIG. 3. A pair of openings 20 and 21 are formed in the wall of main frame member 11 and jointly form approximately a triangle. An outwardly directed flange 22 surrounds the openings 20 and 21 to provide a dam or barrier against flow of moisture into the openings 20 and 21.

A cover or shield member 25 overlies the openings 20 and 21 and is generally of dished or inverted cup shape. The depending flanges of shield 25 are provided with several headed pintles 26, in the present instance three in number, which are resiliently pressed through openings formed in frame member 11. The major marginal portions of the shield member '25 are cut back from the pintle forming portions to form slots 28' through which ventilating air may pass, such air being further free to pass over the flange 22and through theopenings 20 and 21 to the interior of the goggles. The readily attachable and separable nature of the shields 22 facilitates manufacture and renders the-same readily applicable to or removable from the frame member 11 so that they may be employed only when and as desired.

One of the lower ventilating portions '15 is shown in detail in FIG. 4. An opening 30 in the frame member 11 is surrounded by a flange 31 and a dished or shallow cup-shaped shield member 32 overlies the opening'30. In this instance the face portion of shield member 32 is provided with a plurality of openings 34 which provide air ingress and which also permit ready draining from the shield member of any moisture which may enter the same from the exterior, so that such moisture will not pass through the opening 30 into the interior of the goggles.

The flange portions of each shield 32 are provided with pintle formations 36 and one suchpintleformation 36 is shown passing through a registering opening in the frame member 11 in FIG. 5. FIG. also illustrates the recessed edges of the shield member which provide access of air to the interior of the shield member as at 37, although these recessed edges, which are essential in the upper shield members 25, may actually be dispensed within the case of the lower shield members 32, in which case air may enter only through the openings 34 in the shield member.

A conventional adjustable head band for the goggles is indicated at 40 in FIG. 2.

We claim:

1. In a safety goggle, a lens member, frame means about the marginal portion of the lens member and extending rearwardly substantially to the wearers face, said frame member forming an enclosing wall between the lens member and the wearers face, and ventilating means comprising an opening in such enclosing wall and a convex shield disposed over said opening but spaced outwardly therefrom, an outward flange on said enclosing wall surrounding said opening and projecting into the space within said convex shield, said shield having an opening therein out of registry with the enclosing wall opening and its surounding flange to provide an indirect ventilating air passage from the surrounding atmosphere to the space enclosed within the goggle.

2. In a safety goggle, a lens member, frame means about the marginal portion of the lens member and extending rearwardly to form an enclosing wall between the lens member and the wearers face, and ventilating means comprising an opening in such enclosing wall and a convex shield disposed over said opening but spaced outwardly therefrom, an outward flange on said enclosing wall surrounding said opening and projecting into the space within said convex shield, said shield being detachably secured to the enclosing wall at its margin and a portion of said margin being spaced from said enclosing wall to provide an indirect air ventilating passage from the surrounding atmosphere to the space within the goggle.

Shindel Nov. 25, 1919 Aspenleiter Apr. 28, 1953 

